The Doc Ford books are a series of 27 novels written by Randy Wayne White, an American author. The stories follow the adventures of a scientist with a dangerous history. The books were first published by St. Martin’s Press in 1990.
Doc Ford, the protagonist, used to be a government triggerman. He has switched careers, operating a marine biology supply company in Dinkins Bay.
Doc Ford, formally known as Marion Ford, likes to live a quiet life pursuing his scientific passions. Yet, the reality isn’t that kind. Doc Ford is compelled to use his former talents to cope with urgent challenges in the present.
Doc Ford is living his life of solitude in Sanibel Flats, the first book in the Doc Ford series. He is finally able to put his dangerous habit to rest after a decade of living the simple life at Dinkins Bay. But when his old friend pleads for help, he is forced back into the front lines.
The murky Southwest world of Florida keeps throwing Doc Ford in its crosshairs. With old pals, favors, dead bodies washing up on Dinkins Bay, and diving lessons that went wrong, life is never easy.
Randy Wayne White’s continuous series has now become something of a literary institution.
Doc Ford Books in order
- Sanibel Flats (1990)
- The Heat Islands (1992)
- The Man Who Invented Florida (1993)
- Captiva (1996)
- North of Havana (1997)
- The Mangrove Coast (1998)
- Ten Thousand Islands (2000)
- Shark River (2001)
- Twelve Mile Limit (2002)
- Everglades (2003)
- Tampa Burn (2004)
- Dead of Night (2005)
- Dark Light (2006)
- Hunter’s Moon (2007)
- Black Widow (2008)
- Dead Silence (2009)
- Deep Shadow (2010)
- Night Vision (2011)
- Chasing Midnight (2012)
- Night Moves (2012)
- Bone Deep (2014)
- Cuba Straits (2015)
- Deep Blue (2016)
- Mangrove Lightning (2017)
- Caribbean Rim (2018)
- Salt River (2020)
Similar authors
- Wayne Stinnett’s Jesse McDermitt Caribbean Adventure series follows former Marine, Jesse McDermitt. This action series takes place in the Caribbean and is packed with action adventure.
- The Serge Storms Series by Tim Dorsey are satirical crime novels. They focus on intelligent but sociopathic serial killer Serge Storms, a Florida historian, dubbed “the world’s most lovable serial killer.” See Tim Dorsey’s Books in Order.
Most recommended books of the series
- Twelve Mile Limit (Doc Ford, #9) (4.13 Goodreads score)
- Ten Thousand Islands (Doc Ford Mystery #7) (4.13 Goodreads score)
- Captiva (Doc Ford Mystery, #4) (4.10 Goodreads score)
- Shark River (Doc Ford Mystery #8) (4.09 Goodreads score)
- Tampa Burn (Doc Ford Mystery, #11) (4.08 Goodreads score)
Latest releases in the series
The latest Doc Ford novel, published in 2020, is called Salt River. A new Doc Ford novel is supposed to be published in 2024, but it doesn’t have an official name or date yet.
Movies based on the books
In 2014, there was widespread speculation that the Doc Ford books will be adapted into a television series. Despite Randy Wayne White’s enthusiasm for the proposal, CBS passed on the planned series.
Book summaries
Sanibel Flats (1990)
Its cool gulf breezes lured him from a life of danger. Its dark undercurrents threatened to destroy him.After ten years of living life on the edge, it was hard for Doc Ford to get that addiction to danger out of his system. But spending each day watching the sun melt into Dinkins Bay and the moon rise over the mangrove trees, cooking dinner for his beautiful neighbor, and dispensing advice to the locals over a cold beer lulled him into letting his guard down.Then Rafe Hollins appeared.How could he refuse his old friend’s request-even if it would put him back on the firing line? Even if it would change forever the life he’d built here on Sanibel Island?
The Heat Islands (1992)
Marine biologist and former secret operative Doc Ford is lazily poling his skiff along Southwest Florida’s flat copper sea in search of sea anemones when he runs into the body of the most hated man on Sanibel Island: Marvin Rios. And when the Island’s simplest and sweetest resident is arrested for the murder, Doc heads straight into the heart of the sunshine state’s dark side – to save his friend from being framed, and to save Sanibel Island from a rising tide of land-grab schemes, blood money, and violence.
The Man Who Invented Florida (1993)
When solitary marine biologist Doc Ford focused his telescope on the woman in the white boat, he didn’t know his life was about to be capsized: that his conniving uncle, Tucker Gatrell, would discover the Fountain of Youth, that the National Enquirer would write about it, and that the law would beat down his door in search of three missing men.But Doc Ford is about to find these things out – the hard way. Because in the shadowy world of Southwest Florida, where gators yawn, cattle craze, and Indian bones are buried, mysteries great and small have found the man to solve them.
Captiva (1996)
Former government agent-turned-marine biologist Doc Ford finds himself unable to maintain his neutrality when a battle between Florida’s sport and commercial fishermen escalates into arson and murder. By the author of Sanibel Flats.
North of Havana (1997)
Florida marine biologist Doc Ford reluctantly heads to Havana to aid his ex-hippie friend Tomlinson, who strayed into Cuban waters, only to discover that Tomlinson and his female companion have mysteriously vanished and that he has become caught up in a web of revenge, revolution, and murder.
The Mangrove Coast (1998)
The seductive daughter of a dead war buddy calls marine biologist Doc Ford in need of help–her mother has vanished without a trace in South America. Doc’s efforts to find her take him from the jungles of Colombia to the streets of Panama–and onto the trail of the most vile nemesis he has ever come up against…
Ten Thousand Islands (2000)
Government agent-turned-marine biologist Doc Ford sails an endless sea of questions when he agrees to investigate a death from the past. Years ago, off Florida’s Gulf Coast, a teenaged girl found an ancient gold medallion. Then, she began having nightmares. Then she was found hanging from a tree.Now, years later, the girl’s mother is being terrorized with break-ins, phone calls with no one there—and her daughter’s grave has been dug up. Somebody wants that medallion.The search for answers will lead Doc through a shadowy world of ancient ritual and modern corruption, to an evil that was born in the past—but lives in the present…
Shark River (2001)
On a working vacation to Guava Key, marine biologist Doc Ford notices two female joggers who follow the same route at the same time every day. He can’t help thinking how easy it would be for a predator to become aware of them, too. As it turns out, he isn’t the only one. There seem to be more and more predators these days.Forced to step in, Ford finds himself involved in a story of intrigue and revenge that becomes more dangerous with every turn-and some of them hit pretty close to home. Add to that a Bahamian relative he never knew he had, a letter leading to a treasure that may or may not exist, and some past history that becomes very alarmingly present, and his life has suddenly become very complicated. Not to mention the prospect of his death. .
Twelve Mile Limit (2002)
It starts out as a fun excursion for four divers off the Florida coast. Two days later only one is found alive-naked atop a light tower in the Gulf of Mexico. What happened during those 48 hours? Doc Ford thinks he’s prepared for the truth. He isn’t.
Everglades (2003)
Her real-estate developer husband has disappeared and been pronounced dead, and she’s sure there’s worse to follow–and she’s right. Following the trail, Ford ends up deep in the Everglades, at the gates of a community presided over by a man named Bhagwan Shiva (formerly Jerry Singh). Shiva is big business, but that business has been a little shaky lately, and so he’s come up with a scheme to enhance both his cash and his power. Of course, there’s the possibility that some people could get hurt and the Everglades itself damaged, but Shiva smells a killing.And if that should turn out to be literally, as well as figuratively, true…well, that’s just too damned bad.
Tampa Burn (2004)
The abduction of Doc Ford’s son pulls the former assassin back into business–and into the trap of an avenging politico with a twisted and violent plan of revenge.
Dead of Night (2005)
It starts with a simple request: check up on the mysteriously reclusive biologist brother of an old friend. But what Doc Ford stumbles upon in the doctor’s secluded island home is a nightmare. He has hanged himself—and his body is host to a rare strain of feeding, breathing parasites. It’s not an accident. Neither is the fact that the flesh eaters are multiplying in the infested Florida waters. A biological catastrophe has arrived. And only Doc Ford can find out why, and stop it from spreading further…
Dark Light (2006)
Imagine hurricane winds over the Sahara Desert, preceded by a cavalry of tornadoes. Imagine dunes flattened, then resculpted. Then imagine all that at the bottom of the sea. A Category 4 hurricane has swept the west coast of Florida, creating havoc, changing lives, and reshaping the ocean bottom. Well-known reefs and wrecks have been covered—and new ones have emerged. From one such wreck, marine biologist Doc Ford and his friends make a chance discovery that will have a monumental effect—a cluster of mysterious objects that lead to an equally mysterious woman and her ancient, gray-gabled estate of a beach house. The woman weaves a haunting story of a loved one lost, and her chance to uncover the truth if Ford will help salvage the boat, named Dark Light, which sank without explanation in the hurricane of 1944. Intrigued, Ford agrees, and begins a chain of events that will change his life forever. For there are other things in that wreck as well, and other men who want them, men willing to commit terrible acts. And the woman herself—the woman is not what she seems. . . . Filled with passion and vivid, pungent prose and some of the best characters in suspense fiction, Dark Light is a thriller of uncommon intensity.
Hunter’s Moon (2007)
Doc Ford saves a former President of the United States from assassination-and regrets it. Months ago, Kal Wilson’s wife was killed in a plane crash. President Wilson is sure it was no accident-and he wants revenge. He needs Doc Ford to spring him loose from the watchful eye of the Secret Service, keep him alive, then get him home. Ford has just been picked for presidential duty- whether he likes it or not.
Black Widow (2008)
A cult of death.A weapon of apocalyptic horror.Juan Cabrillo must stop them both.Some women you love.Some women you hate.Some women you survive.Doc Ford is drawn into a deadly battle when his goddaughter Shay is blackmailed. Someone filmed her at an out-of-control bachelorette party, and they want big money to keep it quiet. When Ford investigates, he finds that the woman responsible is an agent of corruption unlike any Ford has ever encountered before. And she may be the last encounter he ever has.
Dead Silence (2009)
When a Minnesota teen is kidnapped, Doc Ford is given an unthinkable ultimatum, and only 36 hours to act on it. But there’s something unusual about the boy that his captors don’t even know, twisting this deadly game out of control in ways no one can imagine.
Deep Shadow (2010)
In a remote Florida lake, a cave collapses, trapping Doc Ford and two of his friends. Ford manages to escape and surfaces to find help-but two ex-cons are waiting for him. They’re intent on diving to the bottom of the deep lake and finding the remains of a legendary plane, supposedly loaded with gold. Ford’s expertise is just what they need. And if he doesn’t help, Ford and his friends are dead in the water.
Night Vision (2011)
The Red Citrus trailer park is inhabited mostly by illegal laborers. But the steroid-powered park manager and his grotesquely muscular girlfriend figure that selling the park to developers would be easy money—and they’re ready to do whatever it takes to drive the residents out. The problem is a young girl who the laborers believe talks to God. The manager doesn’t know if she’s valuable or a liability. But when the girl witnesses him dumping a corpse into a lake, there is one thing he knows for certain: He’s got to shut her up permanently.The girl’s only hope for survival: marine biologist Doc Ford, who must search through an underground, invisible nation…and hope he reaches her in time.
Chasing Midnight (2012)
On one of Florida’s private islands, a notorious Russian black marketer is hosting a reception. Doc Ford only wanted to get an underwater look at the billionaire’s yacht. But when he surfaces, he gets a look at something he’d rather not see.A group of violent, armed men have taken control of the island, their true identity unknown. Whatever the motive, they threaten to kill the hostages one by one unless their demands are met—after which they might kill everyone anyway.Communications from the island have been cut off, and Ford knows he has to act. Luckily, the militants do not know Ford’s capabilities, or that he is still on the loose. But that situation won’t last for long…and the clock is ticking.
Night Moves (2012)
Both Doc Ford and his friend Tomlinson have buried secrets. Now one of those secrets is about to come alive—with a vengeance.While trying to solve one of Florida’s most profound secrets, Doc Ford is the target of a murder attempt by someone who wants to make it look like an accident. Or is the target actually Tomlinson? Whatever the answer, the liveaboards and fishing guides at Dinkin’s Bay on Sanibel Island are becoming increasingly nervous—and wary—after a near-poisoning, a plane crash, and an explosion make it apparent that Ford and Tomlinson are dangerous companions.What their small family of friends don’t know is that their secret pasts make it impossible for the two of them to go to the law for help. There is an assassin on the loose, and it is up to them to find the killer—before he (or she) finishes the job.
Bone Deep (2014)
When a Crow Indian acquaintance of Tomlinson’s asks him to help recover a relic stolen from his tribe, Doc Ford is happy to tag along—but neither Doc nor Tomlinson realize what they’ve let themselves in for. Their search takes them to the part of Central Florida known as Bone Valley, famous primarily for two things: a ruthless subculture of black-marketers who trade in illegal artifacts and fossils, and a multibillion-dollar phosphate industry whose strip mines compromise the very ground they walk on.Neither enterprise tolerates nosy outsiders. For each, public exposure equals big financial losses—and in a region built on a million-year accumulation of bones, there is no shortage of spots in which to hide a corpse. Or two.
Cuba Straits (2015)
Doc Ford’s old friend, General Juan Garcia, has gone into the lucrative business of smuggling Cuban baseball players into the U.S. He is also feasting on profits made by buying historical treasures for pennies on the dollar. He prefers what dealers call HPC items—high-profile collectibles—but when he manages to obtain a collection of letters written by Fidel Castro between 1960–62 to a secret girlfriend, it’s not a matter of money anymore. Garcia has stumbled way out of his depth.First Garcia disappears, and then the man to whom he sold the letters. When Doc Ford begins to investigate, he soon becomes convinced that those letters contain a secret that someone, or some powerful agency, cannot allow to be made public.A lot happened between Cuba and the United States from 1960–62. Many men died. A few more will hardly be noticed.
Deep Blue (2016)
Half-eaten dolphins are washing ashore on Sanibel Island, and it’s a nightmare. There’s a predator out there, and whatever it is, tourists are staying away and businesses are hurting badly. Doc Ford has a theory about that, but he hopes he’s wrong. Because if he’s not, there’s a predator out there, all right, but it’s nothing like anyone supposes. It’s human, and very determined—and it’s on a collision course with everyone on the island.
Mangrove Lightning (2017)
Doc Ford has been involved in many strange cases. This may be one of the strangest. A legendary charter captain and guide named Tootsie Barlow has come to him, muttering about a curse. The members of his extended family have suffered a bizarre series of attacks, and Barlow is convinced it has something to do with a multiple murder in 1925, in which his family had a shameful part.Ford doesn’t believe in curses, but as he and his friend Tomlinson begin to investigate, following the trail of the attacks from Key Largo to Tallahassee, they, too, suffer a series of near-fatal mishaps. Is it really a curse? Or just a crime spree? The answer lies in solving a near-hundred-year-old murder…and probing the mind of a madman.
Caribbean Rim (2018)
Marine biologist Doc Ford has been known to help his friends out of jams occasionally, but he’s never faced a situation like this.His old pal Carl Fitzpatrick has been chasing sunken wrecks most of his life, but now he’s run afoul of the Florida Division of Historical Resources. Its director, Leonard Nickelby, despises amateur archaeologists, which is bad enough, but now he and his young “assistant” have disappeared–along with Fitzpatrick’s impounded cache of rare Spanish coins and the list of uncharted wreck sites Fitz spent decades putting together. Some of Fitz’s own explorations have been a little…dicey, so he can’t go to the authorities. Doc is his only hope.But greed makes people do terrible things: rob, cheat, even kill. With stakes this high, there’s no way the thieves will go quietly–and Doc’s just put himself in their crosshairs.
Salt River (2020)
Marine biologist and former government agent Doc Ford is sure he’s beyond the point of being surprised by his longtime pal Tomlinson’s madcap tales of his misspent youth. But he’s stunned anew when avowed bachelor Tomlinson reveals that as a younger man strapped for cash, he’d unwittingly fathered multiple children via for-profit sperm bank donations. Thanks to genealogy websites, Tomlinson’s now-grown offspring have tracked him down, seeking answers about their roots. . . but Doc quickly grows suspicious that one of them might be planning something far more nefarious than a family reunion.With recent history on his mind, Doc is unsurprised when his own dicey past is called into question. Months ago, he’d quietly “liberated” a cache of precious Spanish coins from a felonious treasure hunter, and now a number of unsavory individuals, including a disgraced IRS investigator and a corrupt Bahamian customs agent, are after their cut. Caught between watching his own back and Tomlinson’s, Doc has no choice but to get creative–before rash past decisions escalate to deadly present-day dangers.
